Jesus Sanchez

Jesus Sanchez was a young man with seeming promise. The lifelong Chicago resident graduated in 1999 from Holy Trinity High School, where he was involved with a parish children's choir and the marimba band. But by 2003, he was working sporadically on construction jobs, had a string of pot arrests with no convictions, and was hanging with the Latin Saints street gang on Chicago's Southwest Side, court records show.

Then about 1 a.m. on a July night, Sanchez got involved in a confrontation between two rival gangs in an alley behind the 6200 block of South Whipple Street. Sanchez and others beat a 26-year-old man to death, police allege. Sanchez had blood covering his clothing when he and five others were arrested near the scene, and Sanchez gave police a videotaped statement implicating himself in the crime, according to a police report.

But Sanchez pleaded not guilty. As he awaited trial, Sanchez was released after his father mortgaged the family home to put down a $75,000 bail bond deposit.

Sanchez fled to Mexico, where his immediate family resided. Sanchez was convicted in absentia in 2007 and sentenced to 27 years in prison. But he remains at large and is not on Cook County's list of fugitives they are actively seeking from Mexico.